What do you do?

[Aiden Roberts]

I am going to try my hand at developing more names in 2012, I have tentatively used Wordpress on some of my names and would imagine for now will continue to do so.

Here are my questions:

1) Would you use Wordpress landing page as a blog or have a static front page, as my names will be product based with product pages on the site I am unsure whether to have an updated blog type landing page for offers or a more content rich static front page and doest it really matter? Example here

2) I have a blog type site which will benefit from regular updates but I do not allow comments, should I ? Example here

Both of the above are works in progress

Any comments for the pro's and con's welcome

Thanks

Aiden

Aiden

 

[Admin]

I tend to close comments as I find these get spammed 99% of the time and to me, an online store typically wouldn't have this feature.

I also think a dynamic homepage is better than a static one if you are selling products. I'm not sure but I think Google prefers this too.

The less you can make it look like a Wordpress site the better IMO.

Admin

 

[Aiden Roberts]

Great stuff

Thanks Admin, I appreciate it!

Aiden

 

[Blossom]

Your second site is the one you're asking about comments on, am I right? If so then I would definitely open comments, and make them dofollow if you can. Not only can you get some good links from dofollow directories and lists, but you also get a lot of natural non-search engine traffic to your site which suggests authority. It also adds value to the site as you'll be able to show increased/increasing visitor numbers. You won't get too much spam if you install good plugins.

 

[Aiden Roberts]

Your second site is the one you're asking about comments on, am I right? If so then I would definitely open comments, and make them dofollow if you can. Not only can you get some good links from dofollow directories and lists, but you also get a lot of natural non-search engine traffic to your site which suggests authority. It also adds value to the site as you'll be able to show increased/increasing visitor numbers. You won't get too much spam if you install good plugins.

Thanks Blossom

Yes it's PIP that I was thinking of putting comments on, you may remember I asked about a forum which I was thinking of putting on this site then went down the facebook route, for some reason FB didn't like the email address but I didn't investigate it any further.

I know I need to do something with it early 2012 in preparation of it's launch in 2013.

Thanks again

Aiden

 

[Ashton]

Akismet keeps the majority of my wordpress site's fine. I keep comments on.

 

[Aiden Roberts]

Akismet keeps the majority of my wordpress site's fine. I keep comments on.

Thanks Ashton

I did look at it originally but figured at $50 a month I would need to come up with plan z, still haven't found plan z

Any other free spam blockers out there for wordpress, I haven't looked yet but as the sites are gaining traffic it's something I need to resolve.

Aiden

 

[Blossom]

There are loads of free plugins, none of them are perfect but lots are adequate/very good. Best off looking in the WP directory for the best rated ones, I use WP Spam Free because I hate captchas on comment forms, but it's been giving me a few problems lately so I'll probably switch when I get a chance.

 

[stellar73]

I did look at it originally but figured at $50 a month I would need to come up with plan z, still haven't found plan z

Aiden

Hi Aiden,

You dont have to pay anything to get Akismet for free. All you need to do is sign up for a wordpress.com account. You will then get sent a welcome email which contains an Akismet key (personal to you) at the bottom of the email. You can use this same key for wordpress.org self-hosted sites. I am doing this and have never had a problem with it. I only found out about this as it was a tip in a Wordpress tutorial book (might have been Wordpress for Dummies or similar) so I dont think there's anything dodgy about it.

Cheers

Gill

 

[Aiden Roberts]

Hi Aiden,

You dont have to pay anything to get Akismet for free. All you need to do is sign up for a wordpress.com account. You will then get sent a welcome email which contains an Akismet key (personal to you) at the bottom of the email. You can use this same key for wordpress.org self-hosted sites. I am doing this and have never had a problem with it. I only found out about this as it was a tip in a Wordpress tutorial book (might have been Wordpress for Dummies or similar) so I dont think there's anything dodgy about it.

Cheers

Gill

Great tip thanks I will check it out.

Regards

Aiden

 

[Aiden Roberts]

Finally got around to sorting this out on my site, went with a wp spam blocker so I could have comments on, oh an put a Facebook account together if you want be my friend it's pipchat

Aiden